That prompted me to attend a virtual summit which still informs how I approach my job today.

You all have been visionary and tireless in your advocacy for early learners and those of us who educate them. Thank you for your thoughtful leadership over these years it has truly changed lives.

Wishing this early childhood family well,

Dawn Chandler, Kansas

Thank you for leading with heart, integrity, and unwavering commitment to children and educators. Your impact will continue to ripple through our classrooms, our policies, and our collective advocacy. Selfishly, I wish you could join the NYC Public Schools ECE team as your leadership is exactly what our system needs.

Wishing you rest, renewal, and the knowledge that your work has truly mattered.

I was so inspired by the Virtual Summer Institute presented by Defending the Early Years in July 2022, and the workshop titled Centering Racial Justice in Education with Takiema Bunche Smith, Rukia Rogers, Maurice Sykes, and Julie Nicholson, that I proposed a project to our school board to focus our own work on anti-racist education. This 2022 DEY workshop, and the subsequent relationship that grew with Takiema Bunche Smith, has had a profound impact on our school, our staff, our practices, our children and families, and on our own professional growth. We have revised our curriculum, changed enrollment and hiring practices, and are using our experiences to engage and inspire other educators.

Previously, in May 2022, I had been invited to be a guest on the DEY podcast, hosted by Kisha Reid, another inspiring educator and advocate. I will always be grateful for the opportunities that Defending the Early Years has presented to challenge and deepen my thinking and for the professional relationships it has fostered.  I wish all of you continued passion, courage and creativity as you carry this important work forward in new ways. Thank you for helping so many of us reimagine what early childhood education can and should be.

With gratitude,

Leigh Ann Yuen

Garden Gate Child Development Center

What stood out about DEY was its unapologetic passion to defend childhood in a world that increasingly expects children to perform beyond their developmental stage. DEY constantly reminded us that children are human beings who deserve time to play, explore, imagine, create, and learn at a pace that respects their development not machines expected to constantly achieve unrealistic academic expectations.

As someone who was fortunate to receive one of DEY’s grants, I will forever be grateful for the support and encouragement. Beyond the funding itself, it was meaningful to feel seen and supported as someone working to advocate for young children and developmentally appropriate practices within my community and beyond.

I am also thankful that the organisations resources will continue to remain available and will continue educating, guiding, and inspiring many people around the world for years to come.

Your work helped keep important conversations alive about child-centered learning, play-based education, and protecting the wellbeing and dignity of young children. That message has reached and inspired people far beyond your borders, including advocates like me in Malawi.

Thank you for being a voice for children all over the world for so many years,Your impact will continue through the many people your work has informed, encouraged, and empowered.

Wishing all of you the very best in the journeys ahead.

It breaks my heart that ECE is still not a priority for ECE and related advocacy! Who knows, hopefully in the future, everyone will understand it's importance and DEY will rise again. Thank you, and I know all of you will continue doing your important work in different ways.

As a professor preparing future educators, I have often found myself having conversations with pre-service teachers about the importance of play, relationships, child development, and seeing children as children rather than simply future test scores. Many of my students enter my courses having experienced educational systems that emphasized standards, assessments, and academic outcomes, often with little understanding of the research supporting play-based, developmentally appropriate practices.

Organizations like Defending the Early Years helped me provide a stronger voice, stronger research, and stronger advocacy for the work I have spent years doing with future teachers. Your resources challenged educators to think critically, ask difficult questions, and remain focused on what children truly need to thrive.

Throughout my career as an educator, consultant, and advocate, I have appreciated DEY's willingness to stand firm when it was not always popular or easy to do so. You reminded us that childhood is not a race, that play is not a luxury, and that development matters. In a field that is often pulled in many different directions, DEY consistently brought us back to the child.

Perhaps what I appreciate most is that your work helped shape not only current educators but also the next generation of teachers. The conversations my students have engaged in about child development, equity, play, family partnerships, and developmentally appropriate practice have been strengthened because organizations like DEY existed to champion those values.

While I am disappointed to see this chapter come to an end, I am grateful that your resources will remain available and that your influence will continue through the educators, families, advocates, and children whose lives have been impacted by your work.

Thank you for fourteen years of courage, advocacy, leadership, and unwavering commitment to young children. Your legacy will live on in classrooms, communities, and in the hearts of those of us who remain committed to protecting childhood.

With gratitude,

Stephanie Ries

As an educator, I used DEY's resources as tools to validate my decisions to center play, anti-racism, and childhood in my decisions. As an advocate, I learned from the powerful example DEY provided as they connected folx around the country grounded in the value of children and childhood.

Thank you, DEY, for all you have done for children, families, educators, administrators, and greater society. And for everything you've done for me, too!

You'll never know the reach and impact of your work over so many years, speaking truth and grounding so many of us as we all do the critical work of defending the early years, somehow stronger and more united because of sharing DEY resources. Thank you for bringing all the respect, joy and genius that young children deserve.

With deep gratitude,

Jen Stacy

University of New Mexico

You will be missed. I am forever grateful that you existed and are leaving a lasting legacy. May we all step up to stand in the gap you leave and continue, together, to Defend the Early Years. Goodness knows it is needed and will take all of us to do the work. Thank you for inspiring us to move forward boldly.

Kind regards and well wishes for bright futures,

Allison Wingerson

NC

🩷❤️🧡💛💚💙🩵💜🤎🖤

Joyce Daniels

Thank you!

Deb Lawrence, Co-President of IPA USA

So much of what I learned through Defending the Early Years has informed my leadership of the play-based preschool I have been privileged to direct since 2013. Their work has also strengthened my consulting practice and challenged me to advocate more broadly for developmentally appropriate practice and the essential role of play in children’s learning and development.

I am deeply sorry to learn that Defending the Early Years has lost reliable funding to continue its mission, but grateful that its invaluable resources will remain available to current and future early childhood educators. Their work has made a lasting contribution to our field and has had a meaningful impact on me, both personally and professionally.